The Adventures of Captain Mago

"Sixty-one," I answered; "and fine sturdy fellows they are – as fine a lot as one could wish to see. Perhaps the council might like to purchase them. I would take any reasonable sum, and should prefer selling them in bulk rather than in separate parcels. I hope the republic may be induced to take them off my hands."

"Good – good, my friend," said Adonibal; "it is worth consideration. We have had some rough encounters lately with the Libyans, and must replace our soldiers. Your Hellenes may be a good investment. Under Phœnician generals they often do very well in the forts, and if they get killed, the loss is not very serious. I think I can arrange to take the lot. I can put them with a batch of Egyptians that I bought of Bodmilcar, and send them off in divisions; some into garrison, some to the works, and some to fell trees. The Egyptians are good hands at building."

"Do I understand you aright?" I asked, "have you purchased Egyptians from Bodmilcar? There seems no limit to the scoundrel's treachery. Those Egyptians were lent him by Pharaoh to go in pursuit of us. Some of their ships were wrecked off Crete."

"He sold them to me, ships and all," said the Admiralty-lord. "They made a pretty good howling at first; but a day or two in the dungeons, and a little low diet, corrected all that, and to-day they are as quiet as lambs."

I could not help smiling as I realised the adroitness with which Bodmilcar had taken advantage of his allies.

"You may laugh;" said Adonibal, half-amused and half-vexed; "the rascal has bamboozled the Egyptians, and outwitted you, crafty old salt as you are. Perhaps it may entertain you to learn that he has gone off with two of my galleys and three hundred Phœnicians."

"Good Ashtoreth!" I exclaimed; "how has he managed that?"

He emptied his wine-cup and went on:

"Three hundred criminals sentenced to transportation in the mother-country had been landed here. My prisons were already full, and I resolved at the first opportunity to forward them to the mines at Tarshish. Bodmilcar arrived; I gave him the commission. I lent him two galleys, and furnished him with written credentials from myself. But what did the knave do? the curse of Khousor Phtah be on him! he saw that they were a sturdy set, gave them their freedom, put arms in their hands, and enlisted them into his service. And now they are ready to attack you with my galleys as soon as you will give them a chance."

"No doubt," I said; "but never mind; I daresay we shall be a match for them."

We were interrupted by the arrival of Hannibal and the rest of my officers, who had received the suffect's invitation.

"Welcome, friends! welcome to you all!" he said; "I ought to recognise some old faces. Aye, there's Hamilcar! I remember him when he was a cabin-boy on board my ship. And here, too, here's Himilco, learned in the stars! and if my memory fails me not, no bad judge of a good cup of Helbon. It is so still, Himilco?"

My pilot professed that he retained his taste both for the astronomy and the wine.

"And you, Gisgo, did you ever find your ears again?"

"Aye, that I did," was the prompt reply; "and here they are, safe in my purse. And not only my own, but those of the brute who cut them off!" And to the amusement of the suffect, Gisgo gave a graphic description of his splitting the skull of the Siculian chief.

Adonibal had a kind word for all my men, and promised that he would visit them on board their ships, at which he said that he had been looking from his window, and had already formed a favourable opinion of them.

Bread and meat were now laid before us; and while we were sitting at table I asked Adonibal whether amongst the Egyptians that Bodmilcar had sold him there were not some Hellenes.

"Certainly," he said; "a dozen Phocians."

"A woman and a boy?"

"Yes; both a woman and a boy; but as I had no use for them, Bodmilcar kept them; he had an eunuch to take care of them."

"You saw the eunuch, then?"

"Yes; and a great lubberly Syrian he was."

"What did he talk about?"

"Why, he seemed to say nothing except to ask how he could get from here to Tyre."

"Is he going back?"

"No; Bodmilcar has him, and I do not think he will let him go in a hurry."

When we had finished our repast, some slaves appeared with torches to attend us to our ships. We did not quit the palace the same way as we had entered, but after descending the staircase to the next lower floor of the tower, we passed through a door into the sloping gallery of what is called a "curtain;" into this the quarters of the soldiers opened, the chambers themselves being built in the thickness of the outer wall; we then passed into a vaulted hall, whence a corridor brought us to the gate of the palace adjacent to the Admiralty-basin. A private barque was waiting to convey us to our ships, where we found the sailors, who by my orders had not been allowed to leave their posts, making all manner of plans for the next day.

The trumpets on the various vessels were soon heard summoning the crews for the night, and the countless lights in every direction testified to the crowded condition of the harbour; over these, high and bright, were the lights in the city, while in the east the flickerings from the loop-holes of the Admiralty made the building look more sombre and massive than ever.

In the morning I had everything put in readiness for the admiral's promised visit, and before noon I saw his twelve-oar issuing from his private quay. As soon as he had mounted the deck of the Ashtoreth, he turned and glanced impatiently towards the top of the palace.

"Idiots!" he muttered; "how long they are! when I was young an order was executed in half the time."

He had not finished speaking before several men appeared at the summit of one of the towers and fastened a score of heads along the battlemented parapet.

"Right at last!" he said; "it ought to have been done a quarter of an hour ago!"

Finding his equanimity restored, I proceeded to show him my cargo, and had the captives brought forward for him to see. Without any haggling (for Adonibal was really a generous and large-hearted man) he agreed to pay a liberal price, alike for the sulphur, the lava, and the slaves.

He next made a complete inspection of my ships, and expressed himself much pleased with their construction and arrangements. Eager to make amends for his rough reception of us on our arrival, he promised me that I should be allowed to put my ships into a dry dock, free of dues, saying that this would give me an opportunity of examining the copper sheathing. He then gave orders for his purchases to be embarked, and for the slaves to be properly guarded, adding that he himself was going across the bay to settle some disputes that had arisen amongst the Tyrians. He summoned his officers to accompany him with their ropes and scourges, and said to me:

"Farewell, for the present, Mago; I see that your men are all longing to get ashore. I was young myself once, and I have not forgotten what it is to have some shekels burning holes in your pocket."

He made a sign to his attendants, and preceded by his scribe and officers, re-entered his boat and departed.

Having thus disposed so satisfactorily of my property, I no longer delayed giving the men the permission that they were anticipating, to go on shore; and with the exception of the few who were of necessity told off to take charge of the ships, they lost no time in availing themselves of their liberty.

The Phocians had wrapped their dead comrade in a winding-sheet, and proposed to carry him to a cemetery of which one of my sailors had told them. Before they started, I presented Aminocles, as a token of my appreciation of his services, with a couple of silver shekels. He stared at them, quite bewildered.

"Ah!" said I, "I forgot that you barbarians do not know anything about coined money; but never mind – the sailors who are going with you will show you what to do with them. Trust them for that."

Accompanied by Hanno, Hannibal, Chamai, and Bichri, and taking the two women. I landed on the principal quay, Himilco and his friend Gisgo, with Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, preferring to go in another direction. We all had well-filled purses, and those who had never before seen the famous city, were impatient to inspect its wonders.

Our first resort was to the temple of Ashtoreth. This was at the basement of one of the forts that protect the entrance to the harbour, and was at a very little distance from the place where our ships were lying; and as neither Bichri, Chamai, nor Abigail wished to make any offering to the goddess, they waited for us upon the quay, entertained, they said, in watching the numerous vessels going in and out both of the Cothôn and of the trade-harbour, of which the outer basin was visible from this point.

Being built in a fort, the construction of the temple is necessarily very simple. Eight unornamented pillars support the roof, and, like the walls, are stuccoed with yellow ochre; at the further end was a recumbent figure of the goddess, with a golden crescent on her head. From the tariff of sacrifices which was posted up at the entrance I made my own selection, paying the sum of five shekels; and having made my offering, I obtained permission from the governor of the fort, who was an old acquaintance, to take my party on to the terrace upon the roof, whence there was a fine view of the city. Chamai, Bichri, and Abigail joined us there. Looking towards the sea, we had on our left the Cothôn and the Admiralty palace, and on our right the island which had been the original nucleus of the colony, and the trade-harbour which separated it from the mainland. Landwards rose the white buildings and terraces of the city, threaded by dark winding streets, and studded with domes painted red and brown, and culminating towards the south in the massive citadel, the residence of the sacred suffect. A double line of fortifications encircled the whole city both by land and sea, and outside this a moat and palisade, that followed the undulations of the soil, formed a third advanced line of defence; beyond this again stretched the country with its rich foliage and yellow crops, amongst which lay imbedded the snow-white terraces and brown domes of the country-houses, farms, and cisterns.[34 - The description of Utica is from M. Daux's admirable book, 'Fouilles executées dans le Zeugis et Byzacium.']

The Cothôn at Utica, although not to be compared with the harbours at Tyre and Sidon, is still the finest of any that have yet been constructed in our western settlements, and is well adapted to the climate. It is 480 cubits, or nearly three-quarters of a stadium square, and is capable of holding as many as four hundred ships of war; a small dry basin is annexed to it, having a passage flanked by two lofty columns, and leading into the great harbour of the arsenal. On three sides it is bounded by paved quays, twelve cubits wide, which are very little above the level of the water; the fourth side being formed by a strong mole. Behind the quays rises a wall of rubble-work faced with Maltese stone, in which at regular intervals are pierced the arched openings that form the entrances to the dry docks. The dry docks, as I had told Hannibal, are sixty in number; they are sixteen cubits high, but as they are only forty cubits long by twelve broad, they will only hold small vessels like the Cabiros, larger ships being sent for repairs into the basin in front of the arsenal. The docks are covered in by a flat pavement which forms a second quay as wide as the lower one; upon this, over the docks, and partitioned symmetrically with them, stands the range of magazines and storehouses, fourteen cubits high, of which the flat roofs form a third terrace, which is on a level with the city. The whole of these fine edifices are built upon cisterns.

On the innermost side of the harbour the lowest quay is broken in the middle by the jetty which maintains the same level, and connects the quay with that of the Admiralty; the shore end of it breaks the line of magazines, and is a wide open space, generally thronged with busy crowds; it terminates in a flight of paved steps that leads up to the second and third terraces, from the uppermost of which, through openings in the embattled wall that encloses the whole, there is direct access into the city.

The entrance to the Cothôn is defended on one side by the fortress containing the temple, and on the other by two more forts connected by a curtain, and these form the boundary of the mole. The channel, at the mouth, is considerably encroached upon by the towing-quays, which are so broad as only to allow a passage thirty cubits in width. The outer basin of the arsenal is defended in a similar manner by two forts, one of them being at the other extremity of the mole; and other forts have been erected, one at each end of the interior side of the Cothôn, the lower storey of one of them being appropriated as another temple. A solid embattled wall starts from the mole, and after running round the arsenal and its outer basin, joins the city wall at the left-hand fort, while a corresponding wall, pierced by a lofty square opening, flanked by loop-holes, separates the basin from the arsenal. As a connoisseur in such matters, Hannibal pronounced the whole to be wonderfully well devised, and expressed his conviction that, protected as they were by their forts and by the wall that was connected with the city wall, the Cothôn and arsenal were capable of resisting the most determined assault.

The mole itself is a remarkably fine structure. It is built upon piles, and extends the whole length from the arsenal-basin to the entrance; it is no less than twenty-four cubits thick, and its massive substance of rubble is pierced by slanting apertures or air-holes, the effect of which is to rebut the waves and very materially to diminish their shock. The noble work does great credit to Adonibal, under whose supervision it was constructed.

The Admiralty palace in the centre is a handsome edifice, consisting of a main building flanked by six circular towers and four bastions. It is a large irregular parallelogram, with one of the round towers at each exterior angle, and having an open court in the middle, upon which open all the apartments of the palace, and around which runs a gallery on pillars, supporting two tiers of arches. The two other round towers are on the sides of the gateway on the north front of the palace, which opens on the naval suffect's private landing-place; there is likewise a gateway on the south front, which is protected by walls pierced with loop-holes and built into the sides of the palace. It was through this gateway that I had myself passed into the outer court-yard, and from which I had been conducted up one of the two interior towers, of which only the tops were visible from the spot where we were now standing.

After leaving the temple, I conducted my party along the quay to the open space at the end of the jetty, and then mounting the steps, we passed through the arches in the enceinte of the Cothôn, thus making our way towards the city. We passed the baths, and taking a turning to the left, wound our path upwards in the direction of the Bozrah; there, at the base of the plateau on which the citadel is built, is a large square, the common resort of the sailors; under the shadow of the trees was a number of stalls for the sale of food and drink; there was likewise music as well as amusements of various kinds; and at the farther end was a market for the disposal of wild animals, ivory, slaves, and whatever else was the produce of the interior of Libya. For many hours of the day the place is thronged by people of every rank; and musicians, acrobats, men with monkeys, dancers of both sexes, hawkers of caps and sandals, singers, vendors of cakes, fruit, and cooling drinks, all press upon the sailor fresh from his voyage, and endeavour to attract for themselves a share of the shekels which he is sure to have brought on shore. It had not been my intention to come to this spot, but early association made me almost involuntarily turn my steps in this direction.

Everybody seemed bent on pleasure, and it was not long before I saw several groups of my own men laughing, shouting, singing and pushing along in true sailor fashion, jostling their neighbours, and buying wine and other drinks from every hawker that they met.

Hannibal was breaking out into loud admiration of the life and gaiety of the place, when Hanno drew his attention to a row of heads that, by order of the sacred suffect, had been ranged along the battlements above the gate of the Bozrah. Hannibal paid but little heed to the ghastly sight, scarcely turning his eyes to look, but proceeded to rhapsodise over the difficulty of scaling such fortifications, and to expatiate upon the impregnability of the position, until he was recalled by an exclamation of surprise made simultaneously by Bichri, Chamai, and the two women. A huge elephant was being led past by some Libyans.